Durango: Indigenous Tepehuanos recover 500 hectares

IT IS THE FIRST AGRARIAN CONFLICT IN THIS CENTURY THAT LEGALLY WIN AND RECOVER LAND.

Indigenous people of Santa María de Ocotán, in the municipality of Mezquital, legally recovered 500 hectares of land that belonged to them but that were in the hands of a private individual, in a conflict that was around seven years old; It is the first conflict won in this century and in which they are given legal possession of the land.

Pablino Cumplido Reyes, an ejidal commissioner of Santa María de Ocotán, pointed out that this is the first conflict that is won and that legally the land is given not only with territorial possession, but with documentation.BERNALEJO, ITEM NOT CONCLUDED

He even acknowledged that in the case of Bernalejo de la Sierra, the trial was won and the lands were given to them: “we are in possession of them, but they have not delivered the paperwork that certifies the legality of the 5,400 hectares,” he said.

This conflict was the one that originated a mobilization of police and federal officials in 2002, in the administration of Vicente Fox.IN LUIS ECHEVERRÍA, CONFLICT INCONCLUSO

The same thing happened with the conflict of Luis Echeverría, where Santa María de Ocotán won the legal suit and gave them possession of the 1,876 hectares, but they have not been legally given the deeds of the same.

This lawsuit began in 2005 and it is time that it does not end because there is no legal possession of the lands that are used for livestock and agriculture.

FIRST JUDGMENT LIVES WITH PAPERS INCLUDEDTherefore the importance of this agrarian conflict won this week because there are 500 hectares of forest that were in the hands of a particular family that is based in the municipal capital of Mezquital and that for eight years began the legal fight to recover the land.

Now, on Tuesday, January 22, Raúl Rivas, actuary of the Unitary Agrarian Court Number One, executed the sentence in favor of the community of Santa María de Ocotán to recover those 500 hectares.

But, says Pablino Cumplido Reyes, the most important thing is that not only the Tepehuanos can have possession of the land, they were also given the deeds that certify the legal possession of those 500 hectares.

“This is the first direct judgment in favor of the community, because all the previous trials, which were leading the other directives of Santa María de Ocotán, only gave us territorial possession,” he said.

Around 900 Tepehuano comuneros of Santa María de Ocotán went to the legal delivery last Tuesday of the 500 hectares that were recovered and celebrated in the same place the failure and to return to count on those 500 wooded hectares that had taken a particular from decades ago

The ejidal commissioner said that they will not remove their finger from the line so that in the cases of Bernalejo de la Sierra, in the same municipality of Mezquital, and Luis Echeverría, in the municipality of Súchil, the federal authorities will hand over the legal documentation that the It makes owners of the land and not only have territorial possession, “we need the papers,” said Pablino Cumplido Reyes, Tepehuano leader.